Testing the Waters
by PagetPaulson
Summary: "So you gonna ask her, Jakie?"
1. Chapter 1

"So you gonna ask her, Jakie?"

Jake Moreland looked to the intern that plopped herself down on the conference room table, her twenty-one year old eyes laughing up at him when she the hesitation on his face. "Will you keep your voice down?" he hissed. "People can hear you."

The girl with obviously dyed hair shook her head, grinning up to the police chief. "Come on, we all know that you're crushing on her."

"How can I crush on her? I've known her for three days."

"And?"

Jake huffed, turning his back to the new secretary that the small department had taken on to help them get through the day faster to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee. "Quit it, Amy."

"What do you mean 'quit it'?" The red velvet haired girl laughed, standing from where she had seated herself and leaning beside the small kitchen counter. "You haven't been with anyone since your wife, and you got divorced over six years ago. Is this not the time to get back into the dating pool?"

The head detective looked to his chuckling officers and glared. "You gotta stop telling her things."

"Dude," Amy grinned maniacally, "she's fuckin' hot. Ask her out before I do."

"You're threatening me?"

"Just do it!"

Glancing over to the BAU team on the other side of the precinct, Jake watched as Agent Emily Prentiss slipped her arms through her jacket's long, black sleeves. The way she had smiled at him when they met at the Laundromat, her husked voice speaking her name to min for the first time after he had caught her talking to herself as she tried to retrace the steps of the second victim murdered.

She was beautiful, and having someone like her in his life would definitely give him the meaning that he had been searching for.

"So?"

Jake gave a playful slap to the intern's shoulder before making his way across the room, taking a quick sip of his scalding coffee and letting it burn his tongue. "Agent Prentiss?"

The ebony haired beauty turned her head at the sound of the new voice in her ear, smiling softly to the older man as she began to button up her coat. "Chief Detective Moreland, hi. Can I help you with something?"

"I actually wanted to ask you something."

Emily nodded, turning her back to her colleagues so she could see the Providence detective more clearly. "Go ahead. Is it about the case?"

"No," the older man denied, his hands holding tighter onto the mug he had in his hands. "I know that you and your team, which you guys did great work by the way, are headed back to Virginia and everything, but I wanted to ask you if you'd like to go out to dinner with me sometime."

Emily found her jaw dropping at the proposition, hearing snickers and chortles from her friends behind her. "Oh."

Jake cursed himself, seeing the pure shock written across the younger woman's face and her wide eyes staring blankly at him. "I'm sorry, nevermind." He quickly started backing away from the attractive woman and backtracking his way across his precinct's bullpen. "You guys have a safe flight back, alright?"

The ivory woman quickly walked up to the bald man and set her hand to his arm, stopping him from turning and flat out sprinting out of the station. "Detective Moreland," she smiled warmly, her voice dropping an octave when she saw his nervous features try to soften themselves out. "I apologize, I was just taken off guard."

"Not to try and jump the gun, but is that an 'I'll think about it'?"

Emily laughed, feeling her cheeks blushing at the look the older man was giving her. "Well my team and I are going back to Virginia, but," she sighed, looking out the windows to see the roaring storm smashing the trees against the wet windows, "it doesn't look like we're going tonight. The weather is too bad for our jet to get through. So if you're free tonight," she smiled, "then I think I'm saying yes."

Jake could barely feel the burning sensation in his hands from the mug he had in his hands, his lips curling into a grin when he saw Emily nod at him. "Alright, great. Then I'll pick you up at seven tonight."

Forcing herself to keep in a laugh, Emily held up her hand to the retreating officer. "Don't you need to know where I'm staying, detective?"

"Right!" Jake set down his coffee, the dark beverage sloshing over the sides as he quickly reached out for a pen and pad that his secretary was holding. "Here," he nodded warmly, his eyes on the beautiful brunette as she leaned down to write the hotel's address down for him, her hair falling as a curtain to shade her features.


	2. Chapter 2

"Thank you," Emily smiled, letting the older man pull out her seat for her at the table their waiter had seated them at once they arrived to the restaurant. It was small, just out of town, and the dimly lit and smoky atmosphere reminded the agent of the bars she used to go to when she was a teenager. "This is lovely."

Jake sat himself down across from the brunette and ordered the best wine from the menu. "This restaurant is the oldest in town, built in 1875."

Hearing a tapping on a microphone, Emily turned her head to see a woman dressed in a twenties looking dress with a feather sticking out from her bun. "Is this a theme restaurant?"

"Basically, yes," he nodded to his date. "There are blues and jazz singers here every night, but the woman over on the stage is the restaurant's greatest. Her name is Delilah Jay."

Emily gave a thankful smile to the waiter as he began to pour her glass of wine. "Have you heard her before?"

The older man looked to his date with wide eyes. "Everyone in Providence has," he grinned. "If you're a visitor in town, everyone knows to tell you to come here. Her voice always makes you feel better."

Seeing the small little sense of reminiscence in the chief detective's eyes, Emily leaned forward in her seat. "Is everything alright?"

"No, of course," he nodded. "Just a memory."

"Well I'm sorry that I'm not dressed appropriately," the FBI agent laughed, trying her best to lighten the mood of the evening. "I didn't have a dress in my go-bag."

Jake watched with nervous eyes as the younger woman took her first sip of wine, the pantsuit that she seemed to hate fitting her snugly in all the right places. "I think you look beautiful."

The ebony haired woman smiled into her wine glass as she took another sip. "Thank you, Jake. You look very handsome."

"I did strip myself of the working suit," he nodded hastily, keeping his smile tamed as he heard the laughter of the government employee running through the restaurant. "Two piece," the Providence detective smiled, gesturing to the ensemble he was wearing.

Emily let herself smile cheerfully at the older man. "Nice," she agreed.

"So when has your flight been delayed until?"

Scratching gently at her temple, the brunette agent looked up to her date and nodded. "Eight tomorrow morning, I believe."

Jake's blue eyes lingered on the beautiful woman's lips for just a second as he watched her drink the blood liquid in her wine glass. "Do you enjoy that part of your job?"

"The traveling?" Emily paused for a second to think before nodding her head. "Most of the time, yes. But it's a little hard to sightsee while chasing murderers and kidnappers."

"Well then I hope tonight helps with that."

Emily shared a grin with the older man as their waiter came back to take their order. "It definitely does," she nodded, clinking her glass against the chief detective's.


	3. Chapter 3

JJ watched as her friend across from her smiled at a message that popped up on her phone, and she elbowed the man beside her to get his attention. "Look at that."

The darker skinned man took his headphones from his head and let them sit around his neck. "Who you talking to, Em?" He grinned when it took her a minute to look up.

Emily's eyes left the words typed on her phone to look to her friends. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Who's making you smile like that, Princess?"

Emily pursed her lips to hide her smile, shaking her head as she turned her phone off and stuffed it into her go-bag. "I got a message for Detective Moreland thanking me for a good night."

Morgan's eyes danced with delight. "So why is he thanking you? Did you find a different way to pay for your dinner?"

The brunette kicked her friend underneath the table. "Shut up, Derek," she scoffed. "He took me to a restaurant downtown and then drove me back to the hotel. He was sweet."

"He had his eyes on you all during the case, Em."

Emily glared at the blond. "I thought you were supposed to be my friend."

JJ put up a finger. "I am your friend," she nodded. "And I just happen to be a friend who is telling you that Detective Moreland has a major crush on you."

The FBI agent gave a small shake of the head as she sat back in the chair she had stolen from Reid, checking on the genius out of the corner of her eye to see that he was playing cards with their supervisor on the other side of the plane. "It was just one date, guys."

"And now you're texting him."

"So?" she shrugged. "I was thanking him."

Derek raised his hands in surrender, getting ready to put his headphones back on. "I'm just saying Princess, you haven't gotten any in a long time. If he's willing to be with you states away, that's a pretty damn big deal. Get it in, girl."

Emily shared an eyeroll with her blond friend across from her. "JJ, stop him."

"I kind of agree with him, Em."

The brown eyed woman hardened her stare. "Excuse me?"

JJ laughed at the look that immediately crossed her friend's features. "Emily really, when was the last time you had a date?"

"Last night."

The mother of one rolled her eyes at the answer. "Before that."

Emily paused, giving actual thought to the question that was proposed to her. "I don't know, a few years ago."

"See? Guys always come up to you and ask you out, and you've said no. Then Detective Moreland comes along and you immediately go out with him. That says something," she shrugged. "And besides, he's cute."

Emily laughed, snuggling further into her seat and wrapping herself up in her sweater. "You have a husband, Jay."

"And I won't for much longer if you leave that man out on the line. Go out with him."


End file.
